Gov. Haslam confirms Jim Henry as permanent DCS commissioner

May 22, 2013

DCS Commissioner Jim Henry / Jae S. Lee / File / The Tennessean

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The Tennessean

Jim Henry, named as the temporary head of the troubled Department of Children’s Services in February, will now assume the role permanently, Gov. Bill Haslam announced Tuesday.

Henry had held dual roles as interim commissioner of DCS and commissioner of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities since the abrupt resignation of former DCS chief Kate O’Day on Feb. 5 amid a growing series of controversies at the state’s child welfare agency.

Replacing Henry at DIDD is Debra Payne, currently deputy commissioner at the agency.

The appointments are the latest in a series of reorganizations of key Cabinet positions by the Haslam administration in recent months. Three commissioners have resigned, beginning with O’Day.

In March, Haslam announced the resignation of Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Karla Davis, shortly before the release of an audit that found fraud and errors had led to $73 million in unemployment benefit overpayments in the preceding six years. The department is also facing at least three wrongful-termination lawsuits, including two that allege racial discrimination.

Like O’Day at DCS, Davis had little prior experience in government before taking over the large state agency, with a $630 million budget.

O’Day had previously managed a Knoxville nonprofit agency with connections to Haslam family members, who sat on its board and had made financial contributions.

Davis ran a Memphis affordable housing nonprofit agency before Haslam appointed her to lead the state’s $220 million labor agency. Haslam named Burns Phillips, managing director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, as Davis’ temporary replacement.

In April, Haslam announced the retirement of Finance and Administration Commissioner Mark Emkes at the end of this month.

Henry has received mostly praise since taking over DCS three months ago. At the time, DCS was facing scrutiny by a federal judge, lawmakers and child advocates over the agency’s handling of child deaths, the firing of 70 executive-level staff members, a child abuse hotline that lost callers to long waits, violence at youth detention centers and a $27 million computer system that failed to generate critical information about children in DCS care.

Henry has since invested more than $2 million to fix the computer system, brought in an outside expert to oversee the child abuse hotline, created a new system for investigating child deaths and rehired staff members fired by O’Day.

“Jim Henry is a great public servant who is unquestionably the best choice to move DCS forward,” House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh said Tuesday. “His qualifications, knowledge and professionalism will be a stark contrast and welcome respite from the mismanagement and scandal we have seen from so many other commissioners in this administration.”